FEBRUARY 8, 1901. ] 
THE STANLEY-McCORMICK HOPI EXPEDI- 
TIONS.* 
Ty 1897 the Hopi collections of the Field 
Columbian Museum were comprised within 
three cases and consisted chiefly of a gift 
from Mr. Ayer, supplemented by a small 
collection purchased from Mr. Keam, a Hopi 
trader. During this year I madean extended 
collecting trip through a number of the 
Western States, visiting on my return the 
Hopi pueblos, where I remained five days, 
which were spent in collecting ethnological 
material. From several sources, previous 
to my visit, I had heard of a collection 
which the missionary Mr. H. R, Voth had 
been forming during a number of years, to 
assist himin his studies. While examining 
this collection I was at once impressed not 
only with its great beauty and richness, 
but with the detailed knowledge which Mr. 
Voth possessed concerning every object in 
his collection. At that time there was no 
willingness on his part to sell any or even 
a portion of the collection, and in fact its 
sale was not even seriously considered. 
In December, 1897, I revisited Oraibi, 
the largest of the Hopi villages, in company 
with Mr. Melville, an attaché of the depart- 
ment as modeler and sculptor. The object 
of this visit was to secure life casts of sev- 
eral Hopi for the production of a large 
group which would illustrate certain phases 
of their house life. Mr. Voth had in the 
meantime enlarged his collection, and I was 
more than ever brought to a realization of 
the value of its accession for our Museum. 
I returned to Chicago with the idea that 
we should secure the Voth collection, as 
well as the services of Mr. Voth that he 
might arrange the collection and con- 
struct certain altars, etc., illustrative of the 
religious life of the Hopi. 
Shortly after my return I consulted with 
Mr. Ayer in regard to the matter, and it was 
* Read before the Chicago Society of the Archeo- 
logical Institute of America, December 18, 1900. 
SCIENCE. 
219 
through his interest in the Museum that the 
subject was brought to the attention of Mr. 
Stanley McCormick, who, in January, 1899, 
notified me that he would contribute a cer- 
tain sum toward the work, as had been 
outlined by me. Within a few days after 
this announcement of McCormick’s inten- 
tion, Mr. Voth arrived at the museum and 
began work, continuing with the museum 
uninterruptedly until May 1, 1900, when. 
he left for Oraibi again to assume his duties 
as missionary. During Mr. Voth’s con- 
nection with the museum his entire collec- 
tion was installed, nine altars, involving 
an immense amount of detailed labor, were 
constructed, and over 1,700 labels were 
written. While Mr. Voth had never had 
previous experience in museum work, his 
natural ability was so great, his knowledge 
of the subject so profound and his earnest- 
ness so intense, that a great deal of work 
was accomplished in that time, and it was 
with no little degree of regret that I saw 
Mr. Voth leave for his field of work as 
missionary. 
While the collection acquired from Mr. 
Voth contained a large amount of ancient 
pottery, yet the major part of the collection 
was purely ethnological, and it soon became 
evident that if we were to derive full 
benefit from the opportunities which pre- 
sented themselves in Arizona for a com- 
plete exhibit of a single tribe, we must at 
once set about to secure a proper represen- 
tation of ancient Hopi life, as remained_con- 
cealed within the ancient house ruins and 
burial places. Much archeological inves- 
tigation of this sort had already been 
carried on by other investigators, especially 
by Dr. Fewkes of Washington, who for 
many years had devoted much time to this 
work and always with consummate success. 
I decided, therefore, that while attempting 
to make our collection representative of all 
parts of the territory covered by the an- 
cient Hopi, we should pay especial attention 
